ICHIBANYA CO.,LTD.

Business Details

Centered on the curry specialty chain "Curry House CoCo Ichibanya," the core business consists of domestic directly-operated and franchise store operations and the sale of ingredients and consumables to franchisees. As of the end of May 2026, the company operated 1,237 domestic stores (including 1,207 CoCo Ichibanya stores) and 217 overseas stores. As part of the Domestic Subsidiary Business, the company also operates 57 stores including Daikokuya, Menya Takei, Maedaya, Ramen Kozo, etc. It is a subsidiary of House Foods Group Inc. (voting rights ratio of 51.0%).

Recent Overview

Sales rose 7.8%, but profits fell around 20% due to higher ingredient and logistics costs

In the first quarter of FY2027 (ending February 2027) (March-May 2026), sales increased to ¥16,976 million (up 7.8% year on year), driven by expansion in the overseas business (total store sales up 13.9% year on year) and the domestic subsidiary business (up 73.5% year on year). On the other hand, due to rising prices for ingredients such as rice and increased logistics costs, cost of sales rose to ¥8,601 million (up 8.6% year on year) and selling, general and administrative expenses rose to ¥7,289 million (up 11.1% year on year), resulting in a significant decline in operating profit to ¥1,085 million (down 14.3% year on year) and net income attributable to owners of parent to ¥728 million (down 21.1% year on year). There is no change to the full-year earnings forecast (sales of ¥72,600 million, operating profit of ¥5,000 million).

Key Products

Growth Drivers

• Continued expansion of overseas business (total store sales up 13.9% year on year, with strong performance in Hong Kong, the UK, Thailand, etc.) and increased brand recognition in North America (store opening inside the San Diego Padres home stadium)
• Accelerated multi-format expansion of the domestic subsidiary business (total store sales up 73.5% year on year, with acquisition of 5 former Yamutei stores in March 2026)
• Recovery in customer traffic at domestic CoCo Ichibanya (same-store customer traffic up 0.5% year on year, an improvement from the prior full-year decline of 3.5%) and maintenance of average customer spend (up 1.9% year on year)
• Growth in the wholesale and e-commerce business (sales up 35.4% year on year, expansion of online sales via Amazon, Rakuten Ichiba, and Yahoo! Shopping)
• Approach to a broad customer base through promotional measures such as VTuber collaborations and limited-time menu items

Risks

• Risk of continued high or further rising ingredient procurement prices, particularly for rice (cost of sales of ¥8,601 million, up 8.6% year on year)
• Continued rise in overall costs such as logistics and labor costs (SG&A expenses of ¥7,289 million, up 11.1% year on year), leading to a decline in profit margins
• Sluggish same-store sales in the overseas business in mainland US (down 2.6% year on year) and South Korea (down 2.8% year on year)
• Continued withdrawal of unprofitable stores in the overseas business (7 store closures in the first quarter, net decrease of 1 store) and impact on earnings from foreign exchange fluctuations
• Uncertainty regarding achievement of plans, such as domestic CoCo Ichibanya same-store sales (actual 2.5% increase) slightly falling short of the earnings forecast estimate (2.6% increase)
• Increased store operation costs associated with the rapid multi-format expansion of the domestic subsidiary business, and integration risk of newly acquired businesses (former Yamutei, etc.)